St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-10-06
A CATsKILL BEAR STORY.
Henry Trreu in October Wide AsOake.
GBears in the Catskills 2n

Henry Trreu in October Wide AsOake.
"Bears in the Catskills 2"
Well, there are certainly none prOwl
ing round the Overlook Mountain
house, nor the Hotel Kaaterskill, nor
even in the vicinity of that romantic
crag called Rip Van Wrinkles rock. In
fact, during the weeks ramble which
we toOk-my friend and I-among the
back woods and glens of Slide noun
tain and the Indian Head, we failed to
discover traces of either bear or Wild
cat.
To say that we saw "neither hide
nor hair" of them, as the phrase is,
would not be true. There is a great,
tawny, glass-eyed, stuffed wildcat at
Meade's, on the Overlook and in a
farmers house at Big Indian we saw a
black bears skin, the original wearer
of which had been killed by the pres
ent owner, only a few winters ago.
But we found bear stOries-plenty
of them. Whenever we met native
or old settler of the region, we straight
way asked him for a bear-stOry and
he seldom disappointed us. We soon
had quite collection, the gem of
which is the one / am going to tell you
now. 1t has never before been told in
print, | am sure; for we had it from
the lips of the hero himself-an Italian
laborer who, having originally come
into the Catskills to work on one of
the railroads, had finally made Ills
home there.
Seated on a raft at the edge of the
pond where we were fishing, he relat
ed his story in broken English, which
| will endeavor to mend-nOt i'll the
hope of making it funnier, but simply
to render it more Ineligible.
His name was Nanni (shOrt for Clio
vanni Rocco. 1t seems that in Italy,
where Nanni was born and grew up,
he had been a kind of Snowman. He
used to travel among the Apennine
villages with performing bear, which
he had taught to wrestle SO skillfully
that the huge animal, tightly muzzled
and with claws blunted, would "throw"
all Corners who ventured to measure
their strength with him. Then his
master would try bout, and always
come off victorious; but this was due
to a secret understanding with the
bear, who, at given signal, would fall
to the ground and pretend to be over
come. This was done so naturally and
so regularly, that after a while Nanni
came to believe himself really more
than a match for the beast; and the
faithful creature never undeceived him.
The fame of Nanni and his wrestling
bear spread far and wide. One day an
agent came along and engaged him for
foreign tour, to extend as far as
America. This began very success
fully; and no doubt Nanni would have
made his fortune in America, had not
his Indispensable partner, the bear,
sickened and died shortly after their
arrival in New York.
His master mOurned him like child.
Such another animal was not to be
found for love or money, and poor
Nanni's occupation was gone Dis
heartened and without resources, he
finally engaged himself with number
of his fellow -cOuntrymen, to work on
the railroads. This employment in the
course of time, brought him to the
Catskill mountains.
When the line of the Ulster and Del
aware railroad was first surveyed, the
region through which it passes had
much more the air of forest primeval
than it possesses to-day. The princi
pal cold settlers" then were the bears
and panthers and wildcats, with here
and there a rattlesnake. There was
good sport in the mountains, at that
period.
One day a good-sized bear, closely
pursued by two hunters, came tearing
through the underbrush, close by the
place where Nanni and his cOmpan
ions were at work. 1t was a wild spot,
overlooking that stupeudOus ravine
where the snowy veil of the Kaater-
skill falls hangs gracefully down the
black wall of wet rocks.
"Head him offw cried the hunters.
But the Italian laborers were too
frightened to dispute the passage of
the painting animal. The mere sight
of them, however, caused him to slack
en- his pace and lock about him, his
red tongue hanging out of his open
mouth, and his miSchievOus little eyes
flashing with rage and defiance.
Before him were the Italians, behind
him the hunters. On one side was the
precipice, and opposite stood Nanni-
and he was not the man to run away.
If he trembled, it was from excite
ment and emotion not from fear. The
sight of the free, full grown bear at
bay, and rearing threateningly upon
Ii
lections to rush through Nanni's mind.
ant wrestling days, he had but one
idea, and that was to get good "side
hold" of the bear, throw him on his
back, and capture him.
'Stop-ai stop-a!' he screamed, mo-
tioning back the hunters, who had
raised their guns to fire. "I'll catch-a
him for you ~
To the speechless amazement of his
comrades, he rushed forward and Crap
pied with the Infatuated bear, throw
ing one arm around the plump hairy
body, and with the other hand clutch
ing the shaggy throat.
The struggle was terrific while it
lasted, and by no means one-sided.
Bruin snapped with his jaws, and slap
ped out wildly with his huge paws,
tearing great strips from Nanni's cloth
ing at each blow. He did not seem to
be at all particular whether bits of
Nanni's skin and flesh came with the
cloth or not. Then the two fell, and
rolled in the dust. The spectators
cried:
"They'll go over, as sure as"
Before the sentence was out of their
mouths, crash went man and bear
over the precipice together. The 9th
ers heard the cracking of branches as
they fell aud were lost to sight in the
dense foliage that clothed the noun
tain-side.
Horror stricken, the men scrambled
down the rocks as best they could by
roundabout ways, to pick up poor Nan
mis- mangled body.
Mangled indeed he was, when they
found him, but not killed. He and the
bear had providentially tumbled into "a
thicket of huckleberry- bushes on
RIIaii.